Author Topic: Does anyone eat goat meat?  (Read 20680 times)

Roxy

  • Joined May 2009
  • Peak District
    • festivalcarriages.co.uk
Does anyone eat goat meat?
« on: September 23, 2009, 05:36:26 pm »
With having all these goats all of a sudden, I am probably going to have a lot of kids too.

I have always been curious about goat meat, but had never tasted it.  I was at a farmers market, and got talking to a stall holder who was selling goat meat.  She offered me some to taste, I declined at first, them my curiosity got the better of me, and I had a little bit.  And I have to say I liked it!!!  I
assumed it would be like lamb, but wasn't - it was actually a bit sweet, and no fat at all.  The lady showed me some chops from an Anglo Nubian, and they too had no fat, and looked really nice.  Apparantly there is quite a market for goat meat in the posh restaurants!!  To be honest, I have only thought of a goat curry maybe, and not really looked into it.

This lady runs 150 goats, free range, and kills the castrated billies after 9-12 months.  She has said she is happy to buy any surplus kids I have.  I am tempted to have one for the freezer, but I doubt my OH would like that idea .....not once he had seen it running in the field.

I am seriously considering running some castrated billies on, just to see how they do.  I will not be eating my present goats of course :D
« Last Edit: September 23, 2009, 05:41:03 pm by Roxy »

winshamrarebreeds

  • Joined Sep 2009
  • north devon
Re: Does anyone eat goat meat?
« Reply #1 on: September 23, 2009, 05:52:20 pm »
Goat meat can be used for all sorts things, curries, stews, but needs cooking slowly for a long time, otherwise it goes really dry, personally I love goat curry and goat in rogan josh sauce, really tasty.

In north devon there is a good goat meat farm which sells billy anglo nubians and quite reasonable good idea to buy some and fatten,  you will enjoy them

regards  Joy
Winsham rare breeds
joy turney

ukag0972

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Argyll
Re: Does anyone eat goat meat?
« Reply #2 on: September 23, 2009, 05:53:06 pm »
We eat our surplus castrated billies. We made the last ones into sausages and burgers and everyone loved them, including the school kids!!
You can always have curry and moroccan dishes too.
Very lean and requires alot of cooking but worth it.

MrRee

  • Joined Jan 2008
Re: Does anyone eat goat meat?
« Reply #3 on: September 23, 2009, 06:00:29 pm »
I love goat me too,usually had it in middle eastern countries or restaurants in London.They really know how to cook it!

PS Is the guy in N.Devon selling goats called Adrian Mills per chance? I used to play squash with him!
They don’t join cliques — more times than not, they stand alone — but they recognize and gravitate towards one another. Only warriors understand other warriors.

chickenfeed

  • Guest
Re: Does anyone eat goat meat?
« Reply #4 on: September 23, 2009, 07:29:42 pm »
 :) we tried our first goat meat over 20 years ago from some of my mums surplas male kids, we decided to take a side of goat cut up to a bbq but did not tell anyone what they were eating well it went down very well, it was all eaten very quickly then we told everyone what they had eaten after that we were very often asked if we could bring some goat meat for other ocassions we attended but it is more widelyavailable  today than it was then. but if i was to keep goats for meat today i would keep boers as they carry more meat than a dairy goat.

ballingall

  • Joined Sep 2008
  • Avonbridge, Falkirk
Re: Does anyone eat goat meat?
« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2009, 10:30:13 pm »
Boers crossed with a Anglo Nubian or Saanen type also produce quite a good meat goat. We have eaten goat before, but we rarely eat our own. We are a bit soft hearted maybe. But on the other hand, it takes a long of milk to rear a male goat- you can raise at least 2 if not 3 lambs on the same amount of milk for a male kid, so we tend to rear orphan lambs instead.


Beth

Roxy

  • Joined May 2009
  • Peak District
    • festivalcarriages.co.uk
Re: Does anyone eat goat meat?
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2009, 10:46:45 pm »
I know that at least half of the kids will be billies, and I feel responsible for their well being .....entire billies have a rough time sometimes, being passed from person to person, and the castrated ones go as pets, and sometimes that does not work out, as people can feel they are feeding them for nothing.  Keeping them for meat, means that they enjoy a nice free range life until the time comes - and I will not worry about where they have gone and if they are being looked after ok!!

ballingall

  • Joined Sep 2008
  • Avonbridge, Falkirk
Re: Does anyone eat goat meat?
« Reply #7 on: September 23, 2009, 11:01:21 pm »
Oh I totally agree Roxy. We are extremely careful what we do with male kids. We only keep them if we have a need for them personally or if someone has booked them. Fortunately in the last few years we have had extremely reliable people who have taken them castrated as pets- in fact we had more requests than we had billies last year! Far too many breeders just keep all their male kids, and hope they can sell them. Even people who have good show quality goats- maybe some of their goats are good quality , but it is still fair to all your kids all over the country when not every one of your goats is actually that high quality? That only ends up with people who have bought your goats believing that they have been sold the rubbish, and they won't ever buy from you again.

All that said, there are certain goats of ours who if they have males in the spring we will keep them. Christina our British Alpine is a Breed Champion, and she has not had a pure BA kid yet (she does not like travelling to see a billy goat!) so if she holds to the BA billy we have borrowed, we will keep hers kids. My niece's British Saanen type goatling, her line seems to be jinxed, and we are now getting paranoid that we may lose the line, so if she only has males we will keep one there as well, and not castrate it just in case. 

Beth

Roxy

  • Joined May 2009
  • Peak District
    • festivalcarriages.co.uk
Re: Does anyone eat goat meat?
« Reply #8 on: September 23, 2009, 11:18:44 pm »
We had a lovely British Toggenburg nanny some years ago, called Cherry.  At the height of her lactation she gave 11 and three quarters pints of milk per day ......she was not registered as far as we know.  An excellent milker, except all she gave us was billy kids.  She had 3 sets of twins, and then triplets - all billys.  Fortunately we managed to home them all.

When she was finally sold, yes, her next set of kids were twin nannies :D

jameslindsay

  • Joined Feb 2009
  • Nr St Andrews, Fife
  • "Blossom" one of my Pygmy Goats
Re: Does anyone eat goat meat?
« Reply #9 on: September 24, 2009, 08:26:32 am »
I have 6 girls goats and 7 boys (all castrated). They are all kept as pets and I personally could never consider eating them or sell them on - for whatever reason.

I had a woman appear here the other day asking me about Pygmy Goats as she thought she would like to keep them. She told me she had kept 2 pigs previously but decided she wanted a change as she got bored with them. The pigs are now in her freezer, needless to say I would not have helped this woman find her new fashion accessories.

Roxy

  • Joined May 2009
  • Peak District
    • festivalcarriages.co.uk
Re: Does anyone eat goat meat?
« Reply #10 on: September 24, 2009, 02:31:02 pm »
That sort of thing worries me too, James.  Thats probably why I have so many animals here - and people keep bringing more to the door - young, old, sick, lame, they all end up here!!!  To be honest, thats why I would prefer to raise the billy kids for meat - otherwise I would spend ages worrying that they were stuck somewhere not being treated right.

Its a catch 22 situation.  I want milk from the larger goats.  To get milk I have to breed from them, ok, I can keep the nanny kids, but there is a limit to how many castrated billies I can keep on.  I am just trying to come up with a solution before the kids arrive, one that I am happy with, to deal with the surplus kids.

Two of the pygmy goats are already in kid, but I obviously will not be thinking of eating those :D

r+lchick

  • Joined Sep 2009
Re: Does anyone eat goat meat?
« Reply #11 on: September 24, 2009, 04:17:41 pm »
That is my plan when I can keep goats.  I will keep the mum and a girl and any offspring will go to the freezer.
I bought some from our local market and put it in the slow cooker.  It comes out like mutton (according to my friend), I just thought i tasted good.  It is very low in cholesterol so is a good meat to have.  Chin up, good luck and have a go (on a piece you have bought). Ros

Roxy

  • Joined May 2009
  • Peak District
    • festivalcarriages.co.uk
Re: Does anyone eat goat meat?
« Reply #12 on: September 24, 2009, 05:15:58 pm »
I will go and buy a few different cuts from the lady at the farmers market - and expeiment with my slow cooker!!

I am still doubtful my other half will eat it though, whether its  mine or someone else's goat!!

sandy

  • Guest
Re: Does anyone eat goat meat?
« Reply #13 on: September 24, 2009, 09:21:09 pm »
Goat meat is popular with Afro -Carabean community, we used to love Curry Goat ummmmmmmmmm from friends in Leicester. Sorry all those goats out there!!!!!

Roxy

  • Joined May 2009
  • Peak District
    • festivalcarriages.co.uk
Re: Does anyone eat goat meat?
« Reply #14 on: September 24, 2009, 10:19:39 pm »
Don't think the goats need worry about me eating curry.  My OH and myself have never eaten it.  Chinese, Italian, whatever, we love, but curry is just too hot (even the mild one!).  My friends cannot believe I have not had curry before.

 

© The Accidental Smallholder Ltd 2003-2025. All rights reserved.

Design by Furness Internet

Site developed by Champion IS